Part of being a successful business owner is knowing how to avoid business litigation or how to protect your business when it has to settle a business dispute. Yet, business owners often don’t realize how mistakes can impact their business in litigation matters. They don’t understand business litigation and make mistakes that can hurt their business down the road.
If you want to protect your business when it needs to resolve business disputes, you want to avoid the following five mistakes:
- Not hiring a business litigation attorney or pretending you can act as one. Business litigation can be complex. Being able to make a legal analysis of a dispute and develop a strategy to protect a business’ best interests are skills an experienced attorney will have. Often, hiring an attorney to represent your business in any litigation matter you face will be worth the cost in the end.
- Not evaluating the cost vs. benefit of litigation. Going to court over a business dispute is expensive. It’s better to try to negotiate if you have a falling out with your business partner or have a supplier that didn’t get you the amount of products you needed for an important project.
- Keeping important documentation. You need to keep professional records, so if you face business litigation down the road, you have what you need to prove:
- What your contract entailed
- What communication you had about the dispute with the party
- Taking a business dispute personally or getting too emotional about it. It isn’t always easy to keep your emotions in check during a business dispute. You may have a partnership dispute with a family member or face litigation with a longtime vendor. This is where having an attorney can help so you don’t let your emotions get the best of you during the litigation process.
- Not understanding what communication with your attorney is privileged. You may information you discuss with your attorney, even with other people present, is privileged or what you discuss with an expert witness is. That isn’t the case. You need clear direction from your attorney about what communication is privileged and what isn’t.
By avoiding mistakes in business litigation, you can avoid hurting your business’ position in a dispute. You can best protect your business’ interests to successfully resolve complex disputes.